McWilliams v. Muse, A-6132
| Decision Date | 10 April 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. A-6132,A-6132 |
| Parties | Bobby McWILLIAMS, Petitioner, v. L. A. MUSE, Respondent. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Ratliff, Conner & Walker, Spur, John B. Stapleton, Floydada, for petitioner.
Porter & Lowe, Clarendon, for respondent.
The controlling question in this case is whether there is any evidence to sustain presumed findings by the trial court that will support its judgment. L. A. Muse, respondent, brought suit against Bobby McWilliams, petitioner, to recover for personal injuries and property damage resulting from a truck collision. The case was tried to the court without the intervention of a jury, and judgment was rendered that respondent take nothing. The Court of Civil Appeals concluded that petitioner's liability was established by the evidence as a matter of law, and reversed the judgment of the district court and remanded the cause for a new trial. 295 S.W.2d 680.
Petitioner alleged that respondent was guilty of contributory negligence in various respects, including failure to yield the right-of-way. No findings of fact by the trial court were requested or filed. We must presume, therefore, that such court resolved in petitioner's favor every issue of fact raised by the evidence, and must view the evidence in the light most favorable to such findings, disregarding all that is contrary thereto. North East Texas Motor Lines v. Dickson, 148 Tex. 35, 219 S.W.2d 795, 11 A.L.R.2d 1065. Applying these principles to the present case, it is our opinion that there is evidence to support implied findings by the trial court that respondent negligently failed to yield the right-of-way and that such negligence was a proximate cause of the collision. Since the judgment of the trial court must be upheld on that ground, we do not reach the question of whether petitioner's testimony can be given the effect of a judicial admission that he did not stop.
Some of the relevant facts are not disputed. The accident occurred about noon at the intersection of a country road with State Highway No. 256 some nine miles east of Silverton. The day was clear and the roads were dry. Respondent was driving his Dodge pickup, hereinafter referred to as the pickup, in an easterly direction on the paved highway, while petitioner's International truck, hereinafter called the truck, was proceeding south on the unpaved country road. The paved portion of the highway is 20 feet in width and located in the center of a 100-foot right of way. The country road, which intersects the highway at right angles, has a right of way 52 feet in width. The highway is comparatively level for a distance of approximately three-quarters of a mile on either side of the intersection. There was a stop sign located in the north line of the highway right of way which controlled petitioner's entry into the intersection. At the time of the accident, no vehicle was approaching the intersection except the two trucks involved in the collision.
There is evidence in the record from which the trial court could have found that the accident happened in the manner now to be described. Respondent was driving along the highway at a speed of 45 miles per hour. He first noticed the dust from petitioner's truck when the latter was about one-fourth mile north of the intersection, and had the truck in full view from that time until the collision. The truck approached the intersection at a speed of about 20 miles per hour. Respondent thought at first that the truck was not going to stop, and reduced the speed of his pickup to 35 miles per hour. Just before reaching the intersection the truck slowed down and appeared to be stopping, and respondent resumed his original speed of 45 miles per hour.
Whether petitioner came to a full stop before entering the intersection is not material, but we shall assume that he did not do so. He looked in both directions, but did not see the pickup. This may have been caused by a mirage which was observed a short time after the collision and which obscured the view of vehicles approaching from the west. Instead of bringing his truck to a complete stop at the sign, petitioner changed into compound low gear and began crossing the intersection at a speed of approximately three miles per hour.
The collision occurred in the south traffic lane of the paved portion of the highway. Respondent applied his brakes when the pickup was about 39 feet west of the point of impact, and slid his tires for a distance of 33 feet. When the pickup was within five or six feet of the truck, respondent released his brakes and fell over into the seat to get out of the way of the steering wheel. The left front bumper of the pickup struck the truck at or near the right rear wheel of the latter. The truck is 16 feet in length from the front bumper to the back end of the bed, and the rear of the truck was south of the center of the highway at the moment of impact.
The parties stipulated that State Highway No. 256 is a through highway at the intersection in question, and it was petitioner's duty to stop and yield the right-of-way to other vehicles which had entered the intersection from such highway or which were approaching so closely as...
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Texas Brine Corp. v. Lofton
...We acknowledge that Lofton's duty to yield the right-of-way to Johnson's truck was not absolute, but relative. McWilliams v. Muse, 157 Tex. 109, 300 S.W.2d 643, 645 (1957). The jury found that Lofton failed to keep a proper lookout which was a proximate cause of the occurrence. The jury als......
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...items of damage that the court did award and add together in order to arrive at the amount of the judgment. See McWilliams v. Muse, 157 Tex. 109, 300 S.W.2d 643 (1957); Commercial Standard Ins. Co. v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Ins. Co., 509 S.W.2d 387 (Corpus Christi, Tex.Civ.App., 1974......
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...as does the opinion in this case, that the assignment on insufficiency of the evidence has not been considered. McWilliams v. Muse, Tex.Sup., 300 S.W.2d 643, 646. The cause will therefore be remanded to the Court of Civil Appeals for consideration of Continental's point 11 and other points ......
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